Deposition of Contaminated Sediments in Boston Harbor Studied Using Fluorescent Dye and Particle Tracers

Adams, E. Eric; Stolzenbach, Keith D.; Lee, J.-J.; Caroli, J.; Funk, Dale W.

doi:10.1006/ecss.1997.0311

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…More recently, Newman et al (1990a, b) and Adams et al (1998) also used flow cytometry to count tracer particles comprising fine (1-10 gin) commercially available paint pigment during sewage tracking studies in Boston Harbour. In these studies, the tracer was used in a similar fashion to sand tracer, i.e.…”

Section: Silt Trackingmentioning

confidence: 97%

The use of particle tracking in sediment transport studies: a review

Black¹,

Athey²,

Wilson³

et al. 2007

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New European environmental legislation such as the Shellfish and Habitats Directives, together with the more recent Water Framework Directive, are driving new and fresh approaches to sediment management. Regional authorities, environment protection agencies and consultants are increasingly being required to adopt a holistic, system-wide appreciation of sediment flux in aquatic systems. Increasingly, and necessarily, there is a need to describe sediment (and contaminant) transport pathways on dynamically variable and spatially distributed scales rather than at single point localities. 'Particle tracking', or as it is also known 'particle' or 'sediment tracing', providing certain assumptions are satisfied, offers a practical methodology for the assessment of transport pathways of a variety of sediments across wider temporal and spatial scales, and is available for silts, sands, granules, pebbles and cobbles. Although not a new technique, particle tracking has experienced a resurgence of interest and application by geologists, hydrologists and oceanographers principally as a result of the arrival of new, innovative manufacturing and measurement technologies. These have overcome previous limitations presented by the method, and have also provided a foundation for silt tracking that previously did not exist. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the particle tracking methodology in the modern context, with a bias towards the practicalities of conducting a tracking experiment. We present a detailed summary of the factors and considerations involved in conducting tracking studies, including an assessment of tolerance limits on synthetic tracers and the importance of appropriate sampling strategies. In addition, we highlight the principal technical limitations of the method. We summarise the historical background regarding the use of the particle tracking method outlining the dominance of studies on sand transport and the paucity of silt tracking studies, and draw attention to some of the potential areas of application of this innovative approach.

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Section: Silt Trackingmentioning

confidence: 97%

The use of particle tracking in sediment transport studies: a review

Black¹,

Athey²,

Wilson³

et al. 2007

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“…These tracers have also demonstrated similar behaviours within wetlands at dosing concentrations of 100 mg L À1 for RWT and 1000 mg L À1 for Li. 14 There are few reports of the use of RWT as a hydraulic tracer in sewage contaminated environments but Adams et al 15 found negligible interactions with suspended sediments during residence time studies of a harbour heavily impacted by combined sewer overflows.…”

Section: Continuous Dosing Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of tracer techniques for monitoring sewer losses

2006

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Two different experimental techniques employing conservative tracers to determine exfiltration losses in a sewer system are reported. Both techniques compare the in-sewer responses measured along designated indicator and reference sections to assess the level of exfiltration although with different degrees of reliability. The experimental and interpretation errors associated with a pulse dosing technique, in which Rhodamine WT is used as the single tracer, are described. The estimation of exfiltration requires the comparison of indicator and reference peaks which need to be well resolved and reproducible in order to provide realistic results. A more consistent technique involves the continuous dosing of two different tracers with the objective of producing simultaneous downstream peak tracer concentrations. Any errors due to flow variations are eliminated and the longer measurement period allows both peak and background concentrations to be more accurately determined. Rhodamine WT, Li and Br were used in different combinations over the approximately 20 min duration of each continuous dosing experiment and were found to demonstrate conservative behaviours with measured recoveries of 97.6-100.6%, 97.3-101.4% and 108.4-109.2%, respectively. The analytical problems associated with the determination of the different tracers in sewage are described and are shown to be responsible for the reduced accuracy of the results associated with the use of Br. The preferred combination of tracers is Rhodamine WT as the indicator and Li as the reference and these are shown to be capable of estimating sewer losses to an accuracy of +/-1.0% using the continuous dosing approach.

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“…For example, fluorescent paint pigments have been used to track the dispersion of contaminated sediments from combined sewer outfalls (e.g. Adams 1998). Natural clays have been labelled with DNA (Mahler et al 1998a), iridium (Yin et al 1993) and rare earth elements (REEs; Krezoski 1985;Mahler et al 1998b;Spencer et al 2007) and used to measure fine sediment transport pathways in a number of aquatic environments including estuaries, lakes, groundwater, shallow seas and karst systems.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic interactions between cohesive sediment tracers and natural mud

et al. 2010

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Purpose Cohesive sediment tracers have been developed to improve our understanding of fine sediment transport in the aquatic environment. However, there is little understanding of their physical and dynamic characteristics compared to the natural sediments they are intended to mimic. This work focuses on a labelled clay mineral tracer examining its dynamic characteristics and determining whether it flocculates and interacts with natural estuarine mud. Materials and methods Gross floc characteristics (size and settling velocity) were measured using video image analysis. Floc density, porosity and mass settling flux were then calculated. Fine-scale floc internal structure and composition were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The interaction of the tracer and natural mud was examined by observing tracer and natural mud mixtures. Results and discussion The tracer formed macroflocs (>160 μm) that could not be distinguished statistically from natural mud, whilst tracer microflocs (<160 μm) were smaller and settled more slowly. Gross settling characteristics and TEM analysis indicate that the tracer and natural mud do not interact on a primary particle-to-particle basis, although microflocs of pure tracer and mud do interact. The physical and dynamic floc properties of tracer and natural mud mixtures were different from both pure tracer and pure natural mud due to the irregular packing of differently shaped natural mud and tracer flocs. Conclusions The cohesive tracer flocculates and has similar physical and dynamic properties to natural mud; however, when the tracer interacts with natural mud, it forms flocs with significantly different characteristics. These mixed flocs exhibit different transport characteristics (e.g. settling velocity) to natural muddy material. Therefore, cohesive sediment tracers may not accurately predict cohesive sediment transport pathways, and this has implications for the use of cohesive tracers to understand natural mud transport and to develop sediment transport models.

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Deposition of Contaminated Sediments in Boston Harbor Studied Using Fluorescent Dye and Particle Tracers

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The use of particle tracking in sediment transport studies: a review

The use of particle tracking in sediment transport studies: a review

Comparison of tracer techniques for monitoring sewer losses

Dynamic interactions between cohesive sediment tracers and natural mud

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